One light bulb at a time...

[Brandon Whitmore]

ONE LIGHT BULB AT A TIME....Buy American Made

ONE LIGHT BULB AT A TIME....Buy American Made

This works when the dollar is weak and the people are afraid for their jobs.

Buy USA ........

A physics teacher in high school, once told his students

While one grasshopper on the railroad tracks wouldn't slow a train at all, a billion of them would!

With that thought in mind, read the following, obviously written by a good American.

Good idea . . . one light bulb at a time!

Check this out:

I can verify this because I was in Lowes the other day,

and just for the heck of it, I was looking at the hose attachments.

They were all made in China .

The next day I was in Ace Hardware and just for the heck of it, I checked the hose attachments there.

They were made in USA .

Start looking.

In our current economic situation, every little thing we buy or do affects someone else - even their job.

My son likes Hershey's candy. I noticed, though, that it is marked made in Mexico now. I will not buy it any more.

My favorite toothpaste Colgate is made in Mexico now.

I have switched to Crest.

You have to read the labels on everything..

This past weekend I was at Kroger. I needed 60 W light bulbs and Bounce dryer sheets.

I was in the light bulb aisle, and right next to the GE brand that I normally buy, was an off brand labeled, "Everyday Value". I picked up both types of bulbs and compared the stats - they were the same except for the price.

The GE bulbs were more money than the Everyday Value brand

but the thing that surprised me the most was the fact that GE was made in MEXICO !!!

and the Everyday Value brand was made in - get ready for this -

the USA in a company in Cleveland , Ohio .

So throw out the myth that you cannot find products you use every

day that are made right here.

So on to another aisle - Bounce Dryer Sheets . . .yep, you guessed it,

Bounce costs more money and is made in China .

The Everyday Value brand was less money and MADE IN THE USA !

I did laundry yesterday and the dryer sheets performed just like the

Bounce Free I have been using for years and at almost half the price!

Lay's stacked potato chips in a can is made in Mexico .

Good old Pringles made in USA .

My challenge to you ~~~ is to start reading the labels when you shop

For everyday things, and see what you can find that is made in the USA -

the job you save may be your own or your neighbor!

If you accept the challenge, please pass this on to others in your address

book so we can all start buying American, one light bulb at a time!

Stop buying from overseas companies!

(We should have awakened a decade ago)

Let's get with the program. Help our fellow Americans

keep their jobs and create more jobs here in the U. S. A.

[hausdok]

Hi All,

Please keep responses to this about where and what you can purchase that's made in the USA and do not go off on a political tangent.

A Dollar-Tree store just upened up down the street from me. I'd never gone into a dollar store before because I couldn't imagine that there was anything I could get for a dollar that was worth anything. Anyway, I was swinging through Starbucks one day and decided to check it out. Holy crap - they've got a ton of stuff in there for a buck!

Along Brandon's subject line - There's a whole brand series of household stuff with the brand name Simply Awsome or something like that, which is made in the US. They've got detergent, carpet cleaner, sanitizers, oven cleaner, fabric softener, window cleaner, spot remover, dryer sheets, gasoline additive, oil treatment. The list goes on and on and on and all of it for a buck or less. Sure, a lot of the stuff they've got comes from China or some other foreign country but I was amazed at how much of the stuff they sell is made in the US and how much of it you can get for just a buck. Have you bought a large bottle of Tide laundry detergent laterly? Phew!

I'm hooked, I stop in there at least twice a week now to see what else they've added.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[charlieb]

WalMart Murphy Oil Gasoline

US crude and US refined

[Terence McCann]

I try to buy US whenever possible however it is not that simple (unfortunately).

Google "How much United States debt does China own" for a real eye opener. The Internet is not the only thing that has made this marble much smaller.

[kurt]

Yes, Terence.

Buying American doesn't mean anything other than making one feel better, unfortunately.

China is going to become a net importer of students for higher education in the next 10 years, and it is going to become the primary exporter of most material goods, and very likely a big bunch of professional services.

The economic pie is a whole lot more screwed up than simple patriotic buying patterns can redress. For the remainder of our lives, and probably well past that, the world is not going to be what we are used to.

[Brandon Whitmore]

This article is rather interesting (2007): http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article1571.html

[kurt]

Yes, it is. I don't know about anyone else, but those sorts of imbalances usually result in bankruptcy. Can't come back from that far down, especially when the "enemy" is holding the cards.

Thank you politicians........

[Brandon Whitmore]

Can't come back from that far down, especially when the "enemy" is holding the cards.

Call me ignorant, but why doesn't buying US manufactured goods help in any of this? Why can't we manufacture everything we need, and raise tariff's on incoming goods to level the playing field? We don't manufacture much anymore, outsource craploads of jobs, and import much more than we export. How is this sustainable?

[Marc]

How is this sustainable?

It isn't sustainable. Politicians do what gets them elected, not what's good for the country. Been that way for a long time. Some of us older guys might remember presidents getting poor reports from the popularity polls but history later showed that they acted in the interest of the country.

Marc

[hausdok]

I give the American consumer more credit than Kurt does.

We're said to be the largest consumer base on the planet. When Americans get ticked off and boycott products from other countries there is a noticeable dip in the economy of those countries. The Chinese go ballistic over reports of shoddy Chinese goods because their economy is driven by legions of tiny factories operating on the edge of bankruptcy. One little ripple in the American consumer goods pool and they feel it all the way to Tibet.

We need to have Americans producing the stuff we use. If there were a major planet-wide catastrophe tomorrow that knocked out the factories in Asia, could we produce the products we need to ensure our survival or would we become a 3rd world nation begging foreign countries for help?

We've forgotten how to do make stuff without plastic. When we were kids a coffee to go was served in a stiff wax paper cup with a lid, not some styrofoam. Milk came in a bottle with a little paper lid. Do kids even bother to take drafting or mechanical drawing in school anymore? Is ag shop and auto shop still taught? How about radio shop? Does anyone under 50 know how to make a crystal radio? How many blacksmiths are there anymore?

If the power got knocked out today to most of the country and it was going to be 6 months or better before it could be brought back on line, and there was no fuel to run generators, would we still know how to produce fuel to run generators or to build windmills and other stuff to generate the power we need or would be all be standing around starving and whimpering about how we don't have the "stuff" we need to survive?

What if terrorists simultaneously set off bombs in silicone valley and in Redmond and wiped out 95% of the computer brains on the planet and we suddenly found ourselves with an economy that's currently dependent on computers that didn't work. What would we do?

If the world's industrial base was suddenly reduced to almost nothing, would we be able to gin up an 18th or 19th century type industrial base quick enough to start mass producing what we need to survive or would those countries that currently have not-much-better-than 19th century technologies be able to turn American into their bitch?

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[mgbinspect]

Up until now, there has always been a part of buying American that is "no win".

The reason we can walk into Target and buy a $19.00 polo shirt or trousers is because it comes from a much cheaper labor market. So, sadly, one of two things happens in buying American, both of which unfortunately, raise our cost to live. One, we voluntarily buy more expensive American goods. Two, as Brandon says, the government tariffs the holy crap out of the cheaper foreign goods to compete with our own. Either way, unfortunately, our cost to purchase that product goes up. That was and may still be the only way American auto makers can compete with foreign cars - big equalizing tariffs.

I'm not by any means against buying American - far from it. I haven't purchased a foreign auto since 1972. I wish we already knew the answer to the above scenario and were already fixing the problem. And, if we all agree that buying American is worth tightening the belt and dealing with a stiff increase in the cost to live, so be it.

I know that when I was a mason, the ONLY way the union masonry companies could compete with us was when we were forced, on government projects, to pay union wage and follow union rules, but even then, we typically blew their doors off on actual production - it was partially regulations and partially a mind set that was killing them. Our average daily production was easily 33% higher and the quality of the work was, for no good reason typically better, which I NEVER understood. I always expected the union masonry work to be equal, if not better - meticulous (and I'm certain that at one time it probably was), but in the 80's union masonry work was pretty disappointing. I'm not anti-union, but it seems to me that in the 30s, 40s and 50s unions fostered great pride among the trades and turned out some pretty decent stuff with respectable productivity. But, in a lot of industries, over time, the wheels seem to have come competely off their wagon, when it comes to production.

I have high hopes, though, that this new economy may actually force many American labor markets to willingly make some real much needed changes that increase productivity.

In the late 70's during a pretty significant downturn, many of my union counterparts refused to work for anything less than their standard wage, sitting home drawing unemployment. I worked as a laborer, even though I was a mason, because that's all that was available and on weekends drove through neighborhoods knocking on doors offering to haul folks junk to the dump to feed my five kids.

Some of the problem is a lack of willingness to do what it takes to make it, laying aside any notions of entitlement.

I truly hope that we sort all of this out and experience the production re-birth Mike O is making a case for.

[Terence McCann]

Ross Perot:

NAFTA’s beneficiaries: US companies that move to Mexico. (Jan 1993)

US is becoming a nation of hamburger flippers. (Jan 1993)

Jobs lost to NAFTA are not replaced at same pay. (Jan 1993)

NAFTA: The first thing you will hear is a giant sucking sound and that will be all our jobs going out of the country

[kurt]

My viewpoint isn't about not having confidence in the American consumer.

Read Friedman's article in the NYT for an overview of what one of the problems is. Not the problem, but metaphorically, there are descriptions of the problem.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/opini ... an.html?em

I have a good friend who's teaching in China now. He describes certain fundamentals about Chinese society that Americans simply don't get, not the least of which is the idea of a shared destiny.

China is nearing the idea of decoupling; what we do, or don't do, isn't going to effect them like it does now. They own us, and we very soon will not be so necessary for them.

I know some Chinese nationals, mid-level gov't employees. Their positions would be similar to someone here that was mid level corporate making about $150,000 a year. The Chinese mid-level folks live in 1BR apts., don't own cars, and live a lifestyle we would associate with a bag boy at the grocery store.

We're way fat, we have to lose weight, and we don't know how. I don't lose sleep over it, but we're in deeper than most folks understand. Buying, or not buying, American, doesn't mean much beyond making us feel good.

[Jim Morrison]

'Buy American' is nice to say, nice to hear, and probably even feels good, but it's meaningless jingoism. Where did the materials come from? Where was it manufactured? Who is the parent company? Who owns that?

In the modern world, state and national boundaries mean less and less.

'Buy American' is another form of protectionism and isolationism and that's very clearly not the direction the world is heading in.

If we want to succeed economically, we need to be the smartest, leanest, and best there is.

I think Kurt is right. There is a mental and physical corpulence in this country that we can ill afford. It's holding us back.

[mgbinspect]

Amen, Kurt and Jim,

As ZIg Ziglar would put it, we're suffering from "stinkin' thinkin' "

Any notions of entitlement or a free lunch are gone forever.

The only two remaining ways to stay on top is work hard and think outside the box and ahead of the curve.

We need to get up, brush ourselves off, put our heads down and press forward with resolve. Sitting around wondering what happened or trying to figure out who's at fault is counter-productive.

Innovation and determination is the ticket.

I've already reduced my cost ofliving by 50% in two years and as Kurt eludes to, I've been wrestling with the extreme measure of retreating to my 29' travel trailer on a campground lot, which would reduce my cost to exist another 66%! Being single, I can easily do that and bankroll some serious cash. The only unknown is whether to keep and rent my house or unload it.

Extreme times call for extreme measures..

I get emotionally closer to that action all the time.

[Chad Fabry]

We need to get up, brush ourselves off, put our heads down and press forward with resolve. Sitting around wondering what happened or trying to figure out who's at fault is counter-productive.

I disagree. One cannot fix a problem until one knows what it is.

The issue as I see it is that the people alive today feel absolutely entitled to any of their heart's desires. The people that made this country what it is/ was were willing to work their long days and live within their means.

Budgeting was a way of life..the antithesis of the spending free for all that our children, their children and their children's children will pay pay for on our behalf.

I'm quite embarrassed about ashamed of the debt we're passing on.

[kurt]

Jimmy's correct. A lot of those American companies aren't necessarily American, and the materials they use may come from just about anywhere. Globalization means just that; it's global.

I honestly think one of the worst threats to our way of life comes from the American banking and financial industry.

I've had the benefit of being able to hang around with a lot of Asian Americans for the last several years, and they'll teach you more about being American than most of the home grown Americans I know. They're not the MTV generation, if you know what I mean.

[mgbinspect]

It's the "sitting around" part that's counter-productive. The how and why is fairly simple - even the government has constantly spent money it doesn't have - betting on the come. A HUGE part of the process is this rediculous "pork barrel spending" or "earmarks" which is a constant "slipping under the rug" of another expense that WE ALL pay for, as if hostages. It's a senseless and irresponsible shell game of hidden spending at our expense with small portions of the whole enjoying the benefit. It's insane. The tragic and frightening truth of the matter is - when it comes to the government, WE ARE the creditor and Congress has our "unlimited" credit card in their hot little hands...

I too think the spending and debt we're leaving to our children is unforgivable. I have 5 kids and 5 grandkids and I think about them all the time with what's going on.

My folks grew up on the tail side of the depression, and as a result were pretty miserly. Heck, credit cards didn't exist! People worked towards an end instead of being enslaved by it. Everythng is bass ackwards and is finally coming home to roost.

That's why that travel trailer is looking bettter all the time. "0" debt is the goal now and has been for two years.

[kurt]

d'Toqueville said......"American Democracy will do fine until the government figures out it can bribe the people with their own money."

The kid was brilliant.....and he was French, fer chrissakes........

[Jim Morrison]

Alexis de Tocqueville was French (those chesee-eating, surrender monkeys!). He was also a very prescient observer of our country -a reporter of what he saw- and he wrote those words nearly 200 years ago. History will regard him as a prophet of sorts, I think. It's worth noting that he was left of liberal, too.

Kurt, you're wicked smaht. When are you coming out to Bostin?

Jimmy

[hausdok]

Careful folks,

We're teetering on the brink of a political discussion here. Lets keep it about making stuff in America and stay away from the national debt, pork barrel spending and earmarks.

Those of us who don't think buying American products is a waste of time can still talk about what to buy and where and we can talk about ways to get Americans "making" things again without turning this into an online version of Hardball.

The other day when I saw the post about the acetylene generator I googled the subject and planned to do some reading on it. Why? Because the way things are going on this rock I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility that something really bad could happen in my lifetime that sends a big chunk of us backward. We need to learn how to be self sufficient again.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Les]

i am enjoying this little conversation.

Alexis is much more than that one singlular quote. He really did not have a grasp on the economics of the United States. He did have an incredible grasp of our Democracy and the politics. He was in very good company.

These thoughts do relate to home inspection and the role we play in the economy. Our role is changing from assisting the client when making a huge decision (home = store of value) to reporting on the condition and protecting the client. Most inspectors have made the leap from reporting actual conditions to saving the world and covering their butt in the process.

While following Mike's comments above, I can't help but think how different they are from my Father's life goals.

Jimmy, Kurt, Jim, Mike(s) and several others on this forum, know there is a whole lot more to this business than knowing how many amps that panel is.

[Erby]

Well, Michalel, therre's about 5 or 6 guys ( a few widowers, divorced, just never got married)I know doing exactly what you plan to do. They live down next to Fat Boys BBQ in a little campground that does nothing but travel trailers and are quite happy with it.

They've got their cable TV and computers when they want it, along with a very LOW cost of living.

Sometimes I'm tempted myself.

[Tom Raymond]

Gee whiz Mike! I had a whole filibuster political rant typed up and now I gotta go and delete it[:-dev3]

Truth be told, I thought everyone was behaving pretty well until Kurt had to go and dig up some 200 year old french guy. Gotta love it that there's more to learn here than stuffy old building science stuff. I'll be back, I gotta go Google the frog.

Tom

[kurt]

Alexis de Tocqueville was French (those chesee-eating, surrender monkeys!). He was also a very prescient observer of our country -a reporter of what he saw- and he wrote those words nearly 200 years ago. History will regard him as a prophet of sorts, I think. It's worth noting that he was left of liberal, too.

Kurt, you're wicked smaht. When are you coming out to Bostin?

Jimmy

I'm not smart; I just read. Not sure when I'm gonna be in Boston, but I'll take that as an open ended invite to visit.

OK, I'll stop with the opposing viewpoint; I wasn't intending it to be political, just kinda reporting the facts, as it were.

I don't honestly think the US is in decline. We're in a condition of the world economy balancing to include folks other than just us.

In many ways, I think the Chinese push to adopt our consumer economic model will have worse consequences for them that they don't appreciate yet.